The field of the invention is amphibious vehicle and the invention relates more particularly to vehicles which convert between an automobile and a water vehicle.
Amphibious vehicles have been known for many years. It has been reported that only one amphibious vehicle has been made in commercial production. That was the Amphicar, which was built in Germany from 1961 to 1968. This vehicle had a top speed of only 7 mph on water. It was driven in the water by a pair of propellers.
Recent amphibious vehicles which are the subject of patents commonly use a jet drive and in spite of the many different designs, none have exhibited significant commercial success to date.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an amphibious vehicle which looks remarkably like a conventional automobile on land, and yet is capable of relatively high speed in the water.
The present invention is for an amphibious vehicle having a frame which supports a body which has a buoyant hull portion. Front and rear wheels are provided with means for raising and lowering the wheels. A water jet pump assembly is supported in the body and has a water intake in the bottom of the hull portion. An impeller moves water rearwardly to a water outlet jet at the stern of the hull portion of the vehicle. An engine is supported by the frame and is mounted over the water jet pump assembly. The engine drives both the wheels and the water jet pump selectively. In one embodiment, the frame of the vehicle has two longitudinal frame members joined near the front by a bridge frame supporting the front wheel controls, and at the rear by a rear bridge frame extending upwardly and connected by a cross member. Port and starboard front and rear wheel bottom plates extend from a recessed position to an extended position where they slide under the raised wheels. The bottom plates do not extend significantly upwardly to cover the sides of wheel wells which open to the sides of the vehicle.